


love me tender (love me true)

by londer



Category: Dimension 20, Fantasy High
Genre: Death of a grandparent, Fake Dating, Ficlets, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Multi, Summer Camp AU, fake dating au, night yorb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24862537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer
Summary: It's not entirely clear how it happens. Someone cracks a joke in a staff meeting and Fabian responds but it gets interpreted wrong and now the entire summer camp staff thinks that he and Riz are dating. By the time either of them has realized what's happening it's spread to the kids and then it's all over, because the more they protest the guiltier they look.// 6 fake dating ficlets
Relationships: Adaine Abernant & Kristen Applebees, Adaine Abernant & Riz Gukgak, Figueroth Faeth & Gorgug Thistlespring, Figueroth Faeth & Kristen Applebees, Kristen Applebees & Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Riz Gukgak & Fabian Aramais Seacaster
Comments: 10
Kudos: 99





	love me tender (love me true)

**Author's Note:**

> fake dating is The Best Trope because it allows for Peak Shenanigans

_fabian/riz_

It's not entirely clear how it happens. Someone cracks a joke in a staff meeting and Fabian responds but it gets interpreted wrong and now the entire summer camp staff thinks that he and Riz are dating. By the time either of them has realized what's happening it's spread to the kids and then it's all over, because the more they protest the guiltier they look. 

Riz is on lifeguard duty when Fabian herds his Orcas down to swim lessons in the lake. He deposits them with their instructor and keeps his head held high as he makes his way up the beach to Riz's chair to a chorus of giggling gossipy nine year olds. 

"Hey," Riz says from his perch on his chair, lounging out with his stupid floaty thing across his lap and sunglasses on. He pouts his lips at Fabian as Fabian climbs the ladder to join him on the seat. "Pay the toll." 

This is a nightmare, but it's also keeping Fabian popular with his kids. Riz has a bizarre knack for getting them to love him, and so they like Fabian by proxy. He obediently plants a kiss on Riz's cheek and tries not to think too hard about the squeals coming from his campers. He sprawls out beside Riz and drapes an arm behind Riz's shoulders because hey, two can play this game. "Anyone drown this shift?"

Riz scoffs at that. "As if. Anyone eat glue today?" 

"Yes," Fabian says. Nine year old boys are disgusting and dare each other to disgusting things. Riz laughs and leans back into him, eyes still trained on the water. 

"So." 

"So, what?" 

"Are we going to the dance together tomorrow?" 

Riz jolts, looks away from the water briefly before turning back. "Not if that's how you're going to ask me." 

Fabian rolls his eyes because honestly. "What, you want me to give you a big promposal?" 

Riz blushes, which is fun because he turns this pretty shade of turquoise. "Maybe." 

"Fine," Fabian says, because he's not a coward. "Just making sure you'll say yes if I do." 

"I mean, who else am I gonna go with?" It's not even self-deprecating, just honest. Fabian's really proud of how far Riz's confidence has come this summer.

"Done deal, the Ball," Fabian claps him on the back. 

He promposes at the campfire that night. There's a dance number and a really big poster that rolls down at the end and he gets down on one knee with a RingPop from the commissary. Riz is laughing so hard he gets the hiccups and can barely say yes. The campers all lose their shit as they hug, hollering and laughing while the staff (who are also losing it, despite most of them being in on organizing it) try to keep some kind of order. It's the kind of thing that will end up in camp lore for a _while_.

They sit together for the rest of the campfire, knocking knees together, and then Fabian walks him back to the staff bunks once he's sure the Orcas are in their cabin with their cabin's counselor in training. 

"You're the _worst_ ," Riz is still hiccuping and flushed as he eats his RingPop happily. "That was so embarrassing oh my god." 

"You _said_ promposal, I gave you a promposal!" Fabian's laughing too because it really was fucking crazy. They stop outside the staff bunks."I'll pick you up at eight tomorrow?" 

"Oh my _god,_ " Riz shoves him gently. "Yes, fine, god, you're so embarrassing." 

Fabian hugs Riz goodnight because he can feel the eyes of the other waterfront staff watching them through the windows. "You're really okay with all this, right?" He asks quietly in Riz's ear. 

"Yeah, of course," Riz says back, just as soft. "You think I'd let you get away with this bullshit if I wasn't? Besides, it gives me so much street cred with the rest of the staff, it's totally worth putting up with your shit." He pulls back from the hug, kisses Fabian's cheek, and says much louder, "Night babe!" 

_fig/kristen_

The baby's wails fade as Kristen bounces her gently against her chest. Fig's a little awestruck and the calm confidence Kristen has when handling the thing. Their little plastic bundle of joy, distributed by Porter in what is clearly a psychological torture experiment. They're less than ten minutes into the week long assignment and already Fig's made the baby cry twice. 

Maybe she owes Sandra Lynn and Gilear an apology. 

"Thank god it's done screaming," Fig says. "This is worse than anything in the Nightmare King's forest." 

"Oh don't say that," Kristen smiles at her blithely, still bouncing the fake baby gently. She's got three younger brothers, so she's got a head start on this. "We're gonna be such good moms!" 

Their parents laugh themselves sick at dinner that night as six teenagers try to take care of three screaming hyper-realistic infants. Riz and Adaine have a distinct advantage on them because Adaine can just cast _sleep_ on their kid and the stupid thing goes right down and it's not even considered cheating. Fig's really not having a good time, but at least Ragh and Fabian are just as miserable.

"This is the entire point of maids," Fabian says to her as they watch Kristen and Ragh taking care of their kids. They both appear to be doing a good job but the infants just won't stop fussing.

"Come on, _Mom_ ," Kristen says to Fig, and she can hear Riz and Adaine _ooo-_ ing in the background at them like the little shits they are. "Let's put him down for a nap, maybe that's what he needs."

Their project settles down in the quiet darkness of Fig's room. "You should move in here for the week," Kristen says, stretching out on her bed beside the baby. "I'm not doing this whole project myself, you know." 

"Yeah, no," Fig says, lying down to face her on the baby's other side. "Of course not, that'd be so unfair."

"We should name it! No- not Gilear!" 

"I didn't say anything!" Fig protests, cackling. "But since you bring it up-"

"No!" Kristen says, pushing Fig's shoulder. "You _monster_! Our son deserves better than that!" 

They name their baby Leo and he sleeps between them in Kristen's twin bed, which is definitely too small for two teen girls to sleep in comfortably. It's a long, long week of crying and diapers and calling each other Mom. The Mom thing starts out as a joke but it freaks out all the adults so they really start to lean into it, get super into playing house together just to see the mildly panicked looks Jawbone and Sandra Lynn give each other when they think the girls can't see them. 

The adults have a little meeting late one night in the kitchen, but Fig's still awake because Leo was fussing so she snoops from a secret passage.

"What if she ends up wanting a real baby?!" Sandra Lynn says, head in her hands and Lydia patting her back gently. "I thought this was supposed to _stop_ them from having kids too young!" 

Jawbone lets out a little snuffle of agreement. He's typing away on his laptop, shoulders hunched up in stress. "I'm more worried about their relationships - sixteen seems maybe young for them to be dating multiple partners. Have they talked to Ayda and Tracker about this? Maybe I should put together a reading list-" 

"Jawbone," Lydia says sternly. "There's an eighty percent chance they're doing this to fuck with you guys." Sandra Lynn and Jawbone give her despairing looks, half hopeful and half despondent. 

Fig's impressed but unsurprised at Lydia's ability to see right through them, and sneaks back upstairs to report back to Kristen. They have a brief argument ("our first fight, aw")("I won't fight with you in front of our son!") over the best way to extend the joke. 

The next morning Fig walks downstairs with a prestidigitated hickey in Kristen's IDK shirt and Sandra Lynn drops her coffee all over herself. 

_adaine/riz_

"I'm sorry, miss," the hospital receptionist says in a placid voice. "It's family only."

"I know," Adaine says, which is true, Fabian and Fig had warned her before she arrived at the hospital that they weren't letting them in. "I'm his girlfriend." She shows the receptionist the lockscreen she had hastily changed in the parking lot to a photo of her and Riz from homecoming (Fabian had been hastily cropped out, but she's hoping the receptionist doesn't notice).

The receptionist smiles at her. "Of course, dear. We'll just need your information and you can go right back." Adaine can feel Fabian and Fig watching her from across the waiting room as she hastily fills out the visitor's form and is handed a little sticky badge with her name on it. 

Riz is so small in his hospital bed, so there's plenty of space for Adaine to sit beside him and hold his unbandaged hand. They don't know what happened to him, only that he was found writhing and screaming covered in his own blood and under a severe curse. 

"Hey, babe," Adaine says, because the ICU is pretty public and all the nurses at their station can see into the room. Riz stirs a little bit, cracks one eye open. She leans forward and tucks a dark lock of his hair away from his forehead and presses a kiss to his cheek. He blinks at her, confused. "Roll with it," She whispers and he nods as much as he can with the bandages around his neck and torso. "Do you know what happened to you?" 

Yes. "Can you talk?" No. "Fuck." Yes. "Is it to do with...redacted? Tattoo-name redacted?" Yes. "Were you at school?" Yes. "Are you still in danger?" A painful looking shrug. 

"Are you in pain still?" Adaine asks, forces her eyes to get a little bit watery as a nurse comes in to take Riz' vitals. He hesitates, then nods. She turns to the nurse, who's already pushing something clear into Riz' IV drip. 

"This will help with that," he says. "Do you know anything about the curse he's under? Anything you know will help us help him." 

"Yes, but I can't say it out loud," Adaine says. "It's probably a verbal activation. But he's got a tattoo of the words on his side." She super does not want to have to lift Riz' hospital gown to point it out; this girlfriend ruse is going out the window if it comes to that. 

The nurse nods, picks up Riz' file. "We got photos of his tattoos before we bandaged him in case they were spell components."

Riz looks pale and horrible in the photos, small body lifeless and sad. Adaine taps the _night yorb_ tattoo and the nurse freezes. "I see." He snaps the folder shut. "I'll go get Dr. Asha, he's our top curse breaking specialist. He'll need to see Mr. Gukgak right away." 

_adaine/kristen_

It’s dark and hot at the homecoming dance in the gym at Aguefort. The DJ is blasting good music and Adaine is spending the night glittering and laughing on the dance floor with her friends. 

Well. Was laughing. She, Fig, Kristen, and Zelda had gotten ready together, doing their makeup and hair in the tiny third floor bathroom at Mordred Manor and gushing over each other’s outfits. Adaine had worked out how to get the sequins on Zelda’s dress to sparkle without light hitting them and Zelda had done her eyeliner for her in perfect little wings. They all spent far too long looking up tutorials to do Fig and Kristen’s ties before giving up and getting Jawbone to do it for them. Zelda distracts Kristen while they call Tracker, still in Fallinel, as a surprise so she can see how good Kristen looks.

The boys picked them up in the Hang Van and they took pictures in the garden of Seacaster Manor, all their parents clamoring behind their crystal cameras. They arrived at the dance in a flurry of more photos and hugs to their other friends, had rushed the dance floor as soon as music started playing. 

It seems like such a long time ago, because now Adaine is backed into a corner of the gym by some senior half-elf who’s got one hand on her lower stomach, holding her in place while he tries to talk her into going somewhere more private with him. She’s trying desperately not to make a scene because she’s been told enough times how she ruined prom two years ago, trying to catch someone’s eye from this dark corner when-

“Hey,” and Saint Kristen Applebees is standing there in her navy suit, hair tumbling around her shoulders in russet curls. “Adaine, baby, is this guy bothering you?”

The half-elf just looks at her intensely like he’s waiting for a no and Adaine just kind of shrugs helplessly and tries to scooch past him to Kristen. “Fuck off, Applebees,” he says, tightening his grip on Adaine. 

“Nah,” Kristen says, and her eyes swirl like voids with Cassandra’s power. “Get your hands off my girlfriend before I fucking eviscerate you.”

The half-elf laughs, looks between the two of them. “Girlfriend, huh? I’d like to see you try.”

Kristen shrugs and snaps her fingers lazily. He hits the wall behind them and is trapped there by some invisible force. Adaine doesn’t quite run, but she quickly goes into Kristen’s waiting arms. “You good?” Kristen asks in her ear and Adaine nods into her shoulder. “Let’s go find Jawbone, he should be here chaperoning.” Adaine nods again, pulls away from the hug to tuck herself into Kristen’s side as they walk away. Kristen presses a kiss to the corner of Adaine’s mouth to really sell it to the half-elf (and the rest of the gym, jeez), who’s still pinned to the wall, gawking after them. Nobody bothers them for the rest of the night.

_gorgug/fig_

Pre-sales for the next album are a little slow. It's not too surprising since they took such a huge break for their junior year, but Lola's kind of bugging about it and tells them to do something crazy to get their names back out there before she does. Fig and Gorgug agree that it's kind of bullshit, but they also know that Lola is fully ready to go off the rails after the Shrimp Party Incidents.

So they do what any respectable bandmates of similar ages trying to get album sales would do: have a really long responsible conversation with Zelda and Ayda. It takes a while for Ayda to get it, but that's fine, Fig's not doing anything unless she's absolutely sure they're all on board and know what's going on. Zelda and Ayda were never really in the public light for the band (by their own choice) but it's important for everyone to be in the loop before anyone starts faking an affair for album sales. 

A few days later Gorgug is spotted leaving her dressing room before a show with Fig's signature red lipstick smeared all over his face and neck. Fig refused to do the lipstick stains with magic because of "authenticity" so they smuggled Zelda in to do them instead. 

Someone _conveniently_ gets a couple of well-staged photos and posts them online and that's really all they need for the gossip blogs to start writing. There's a lot of speculation about what the new album's about, but the consensus is that it's probably about their secret romance.The message boards go ballistic and the pre-orders for the album spike. The entire band refuses to comment, which only fuels the flames, and it looks like _Phoenix Rising_ is about to outsell their already-successful debut by a _lot._

  
A week before it's set to come out they're both spotted out on very separate dinner dates with their actual significant others. Zelda wears Fig's lipstick shade out in public, and the rumors sort of die down, although the Gorgug Thong _is_ the best selling merch on tour.

_fabian/kristen_

Kristen's mother stands at the end of the driveway to Mordred Manor while her father sits in the car on the street. "Nana died last night." Kristen just stares at her in shock. Nana was in a bad way for a long time, but the last time Kristen had visited the old lady had seemed to be taking a turn for the better. "The funeral is Monday. If you're still living in sin," She surveys Mordred Manor with a sniff. "Then don't bother showing up."

"I have a boyfriend," Kristen says before she can stop herself because she grew up lying to herself so what's one more? Nana really loved Helio and Kristen really loved Nana and she's going to that funeral come hell or high water. 

"Oh?" Her mother looks skeptical but hopeful. "Who?" 

And. Well. Who else is she supposed to say? 

Fabian, to his credit, doesn't even blink when she tells him. "I'll have Cathilda send my suit to the cleaners," he says. "I'm really sorry for your loss, Kristen." 

"You're not mad?" Kristen asks. 

"Nah," he says, turns back to his crystal. "You deserve to get to say goodbye to your grandmama."

"Thank you," Kristen's touched. "I'll send you the details." 

Monday is bright and sunny and Kristen's pretty sweaty in her black dress and tights. Pastor Amelia is overjoyed to see her and even more overjoyed to see Fabian standing just behind her like a big guard dog wearing a black suit. There's a bit of grumbling from the extended family about _half-elves_ but she knows he's such an improvement in their eyes over Tracker that nobody picks any kind of fight. 

The service is long and the church gets even more sweltering as they pop corn over a brazier above the casket. Kristen starts crying when they start singing Nana's favorite hymn, _Love is Corn_ , and Fabian wraps his arm around her and kisses the top of her head comfortingly. It's nice to have someone there who actually cares about her. She pretends to not hear her aunts in the next row whispering to each other.

"Kristen, aren't you coming to the potluck at Auntie Mae's?" Kristen's mother asks when they're in the parking lot to leave the burial grounds. "Fabian, you're invited as well, dear." The Hangman is waiting for them, sitting quietly like he's some kind of docile scooter.

"Sorry," Fabian says, making a show of helping Kristen onto the back of the bike. "We can't. My boyfriend is waiting for us." Kristen just gets to see the appalled looks on her parent's faces before the Hangman tears off up the street with them.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://elsie-writes.tumblr.com)


End file.
